TIME’s Cover

In this week’s cover story, TIME’s Mark Thompson reports: “Never has the U.S. public been so separate, so removed, so isolated from the people it pays to protect it….. Most Americans have not served in uniform, no longer have a parent who did and are unlikely to encourage their children to enlist…. Over the past generation, the world’s lone superpower has created—and grown accustomed to—a permanent military caste, increasingly disconnected from U.S. society, waging decade-long wars in its name, no longer representative of or drawn from the citizenry as a whole. Think of the U.S. military as the Other 1%—some 2.4 million troops have fought in and around Afghanistan and Iraq since 9/11, exactly 1% of the 240 million Americans over 18.” Read here.

And in what appears to be perhaps the most obvious thought of the day… TIME’s Mark Halperin: “[Herman] Cain Stands to Lose Support Everywhere, But Especially Among Women.” Read here.